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13

Mar2018

Acing your Time Management for maximum utilization

Corporate life can be frenetic, with all of us chasing various goals. In the midst of this work frenzy, many people spend their time in a disorganized manner, which prevents them from achieving their full potential. This of course brings us back to the issue of time management.

Signs of Poor Time Management

1. Procrastination

Sometimes, you know what needs to be done but you keep putting it off. Eventually, when you decide to complete the task, the deadline is usually looming large and you are under pressure to complete the task in time. Repeated procrastination can result in stress and poor performance.

2. Impatience

Impatience is usually a sign of poor time management. Having failed to allow sufficient time for a task or, having procrastinated excessively, you find yourself under extreme pressure to make a deadline. You may accuse other people, or technology, of delaying you but the truth is that you have failed yourself by failing to manage your time properly.

3. Working round-the-clock.

Bringing work home, working late at night and over the weekends does not a healthy person make. And if you're even having dreams (or nightmares!) about your place of employment, then it's really time to make changes.

4. Too many hours at work

Working hours have become longer than before. As a guide, you’re working for too long if you’re putting in more than 50 hours per week.

What do most employees feel about work life balance due to ineffective time management?

Before writing this article we interviewed various employees about their assessment on work life balance and derived to some valuable conclusions.

Anshuman Pandey a CA and CS, said “Poor work life balance is the root cause of stress and frustration caused due to lack of efficient Time management”

Shaswat Mishra an engineer said “Having a mentor at workplace can help a ton in understanding the work culture and managing the time accordingly”

Most of them are not interested to sacrifice their personal life for work because ultimately it results in poor family relations and emotional breakdown. This also affects their performance which makes it impossible to reach the top position which they aim in their careers. The ultimate goal of life is to be happy, but if work and life are not balanced properly it leads to a gloomy life.

Top tier employees generally go for those employers who have a policy of work life balance like sponsoring holiday trips, discouraging employees to work beyond office hours, etc.

So how can you achieve more in the same time using Effective Time management?

Now comes the most important part, how can you improve the quality of your life by managing work and personal life

1. Delineate a time limit in which to complete task. – Instead of just sitting down to work on a project and thinking, “I’m going to be there until this is done” try thinking “ I’m going to work on this for three hours” doing so the time constraint will push you to focus and be more efficient, even if you end up having to go back and add a bit more later.

2. Prioritize your work wisely – Make a note and look where your activity fits into these categories

Important and urgent – Task that must be done and is most important

Important and not urgent – Task that appear important but on closer examination are not so vital. Decide when to complete them.

Urgent but not important – Tasks which have little or no value. Try to delegate these if possible.

Not urgent and Not Important – Tasks that are to be given low priority and can be done later.

Writing these four points down and addresses them every day, and upon completion of each task, check off your list. This will provide you with a sense of accomplishment and will motivate you to tackle less essential items.

3. Avoid Multitasking – Carl Newport on his book “Deep Work “A page titled “why it’s hard to do my work” Sophie Leary, a professor at Minnesota writes –
”People need to stop thinking about one task in order to fully transition their attention and perform well on another. Yet, results indicate it is difficult for people to transition their attention away from an unfinished task, and their subsequent task performance suffers”.

4. Learn to say No – Generally most employees hesitate to say No, Saying a Yes to everything could lead to an accumulation of a large number of assignments, which results in stress and exhaustion due to excess work. Learn to say no, by giving a logical and clear explanation for your reasons.

5. Eliminate Distractions – You probably won’t be able to eliminate all interruptions. People still need your time and attention through the day and you have to respond to a crisis or unexpected need for an immediate decision. But you can “train” others to give you the time you need to get your work done. your phone go to voice mail. Turn off your email notification and instant messaging.

And unless you need to be on social media for your job, schedule a short block

It is in your hands to achieve a balance between your work and personal life. It will be difficult at the beginning to master time management and work-life balance but after you acquire a degree of experience, it will become second nature to you. So to conclude, do not feel sad if you have so far failed to manage your personal life with work life. Start prioritizing and saving time from today, for a better tomorrow.

Written byPriya Prajapati & Lakshmikanth V

Priya Prajapati is pursuing HR and Marketing studies at BML MUNJAL UNIVERSITY. A headstrong person, careful listener; critical thinker, tentative reader. She is a keen observer of situations and tends to act according to the situation.

Lakshmikanth V is an MBA student pursuing forensic accounting at BML Munjal University. Interested in gadgets and technology, open to learning and loves cricket.

Very beautifully written! We all go through similar emotions when our kids move out . The degree of missing them varies depending on the bond between the parents and the children. It is surely wise to cherish the new found free time by keeping oneself occupied with ones long lost hobbies and more quality time between the parents. Maybe give more time to ones aging parents who too must be missing us ! Meditation and Yoga does the magic trick too !

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